How Mel Robbins Engineered a Bestseller (and What You Can Steal for Your Book)

Self help. Book sales are up 16% this year over last year, according to Circana Book Sales. And a lot of that is driven by a single book, the Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins. And that led me to a discussion with some friends of mine as to what makes that book such a hit over other books. So if you've wondered what really makes a book a bestseller, good news. This video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julia the Book Broad, founder of Book Launchers and creator of Author Launch Kit, your nonfiction book marketing toolkit, all in one awesome piece of software. All right, what makes a bestseller? And this is probably not a spoiler, but it's not just talented writing. Sometimes it's not even talented writing. There might be a lot of good editing, but the writing wasn't actually that good to begin with. Of course, your book has to connect and it needs to be well written to do that. So I'm not saying that writing is not important, but ultimately, there are plenty of books that are exceptional out there. It's not that that makes a big bestseller. It's a launch mission so tightly designed it feels like it was engineered. And let me tell you, the Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins was a work of genius from a lot of angles. Here's how it played out. The Let Them Theory came out in December of 2024 via Hay House. Its central mantra, two words, let them, that resonated so deeply that critics say millions already knew the idea before the book hit the shelves. Now, who is Mel Robbins? I didn't actually know, so I found articles on her from People and the Independent. And according to the Independent, she's a creator and host of the chart topping series the Mel Robbins Podcast. And she started her career as a criminal defense attorney before pivoting to self help and speaking after her 2011 TEDx talk went viral. The talk, titled how to Stop Screwing Yourself over, has now been viewed more than 33 million times. And Robbins has written more than 10 books inspired by her journey of becoming more confident and fulfilled. Did you catch that? She's written more than 10 books. The Let Them Theory was not her first book. I had no idea she had other books. Some of them haven't done that well at all from what I can tell. Check out Work it out, which looks like it was just an audible book and it doesn't have very many reviews at all. So just like every other overnight success I've ever researched, her overnight success was more than 10 years in the making. Now here's another cool part about this Story Let Them was not a book that blew up. It was an idea that that willed itself into a book. So here's someone who's creating content, helping people, speaking and doing a podcast and writing other books. On this journey, she found a concept that was resonating. Mel Robbins isn't alone in engineering a bestseller before it even existed. James Clear did the same thing years before Atomic Habits hit the shelf. He spent years blogging, testing ideas about behavior change and building a loyal newsletter audience that practically begged for the book before it existed. Alex Hormozy, he was out there publishing videos, sharing his frameworks, and of course two other books working with real client results long before $100 million offers got its Guinness record breaking book launch. And Brene Brown, she's the slow burn example. Years of research, TED talks and smaller books laid the foundation before daring greatly turned into her cultural voice. The pattern I hope you see here is not luck. Luck always helps, but it's leverage. These authors didn't just write one book. They tested their way through many books. In most cases or a lot of content, they were in the world, talking about their work, building an audience and finding the messages that resonated. What does this mean for you? Well, there isn't one way to do this, but the one way none of them took was waiting. They were in front of audiences, sharing, learning and testing. They built the movement and sold the manual on it. They also all built their own audience. Mel Robbins had her podcast, James Clear newsletter, Hermozi, his YouTube channel and email list. Now let's get into some of the cool things Mel Robbins has done that showcase some great strategy so so you can use it to rob and duplicate for your book launch. Number one, sell the slogan first and pre seed it over and over. Years before the book Robbins was dropping, let them in podcasts and short videos. By the time her book arrived, millions already had heard the phrase, that's strategy, not luck. Now, noboringbooks isn't as easy as let them, but it was born from a YouTube video where we made a joke about being against boring books and someone in the comments said, well, that should be a hashtag and noboringbooks was born. Just because you are writing nonfiction doesn't mean it should be boring, right? So get out there before your book is out and talk about your ideas and find the ones that are sticky and lean into them. All right? Number two, sell pre orders in the form of event tickets. Now this is kind of funny because as I am prepping this video, we're doing Pre orders for the second edition of Self Publish and Succeed. And depending on when you watch this, you might still be able to get a pre order book for $20 and have that include access to our three day summit and the replays. But her pre order was not an afterthought. It was a ticket to a virtual or in person experience. And this is a cool idea and one that we clearly think is cool because we're using it too. But that concentrates demand into day one and explodes on the bestseller charts if you're selling books throughout through retail. We're not. The ticket is only available if you buy direct from us at self publishandsucceed.com One thing she did that I thought was pretty cool though was selling tickets to her book signings and that included a photo and a signed copy. I love that idea. And while a brand new author with no audience will probably struggle to get people to a book signing period, let alone getting them to buy a ticket to it, you don't need millions of fans to make this work either. A small but mighty community will do the trick for this and make some great content for social media and broadcast media too. When you're doing these photos and the signed books, number three, Own your channels of communication. She didn't wait for Oprah or anyone else. She had her podcast, she had her audience, and she had her funnel. Now that's the canon she fires from. There's no middleman needed. And when you do that and you can make waves, you'll find the big players want to feature you and talk to you Anyway, Building your own audience comes in for the win again and again. And guess what? Today is the best day to start building your audience. Newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel, they're all content. The best ones are the ones that you fully control, like your own newsletter or podcast. Hormozi did this brilliantly with his launch too, by the way. I broke his launch down in a separate video so you can watch it afterwards. But ultimately, owning your communication channel and using it is a powerful way to have a massive launch. Number four, launch twice and tour. This is another thing I think she's done that's kept her in the top of the charts for longer. And that is she essentially prolonged her launch by having the massive book release as wave one and then having the Let Them Tour as wave two. So she goes regionally and has spikes in each area where she's traveling. Okay, so now let's apply this to your next book launch with a nice seven step checklist, shall we? Maybe you won't be the next Mel Robbins, but I can guarantee you don't need to be that well known to make a great income and have a fabulous impact. All right, so number one, name your transformation is your book. Does it have one repeatable slogan? And if it does, what is it? Two words is a sweet spot, but if you need three, go ahead. And with that in mind, I'm curious what you think mine could be, especially if you've read Self Publish and Succeed or Self Promote and Succeed, I think hashtag noboreybooks, but maybe Build Books that Sell is another. I can't think of a two word one, so if you have one in the comments, let me know. Number two Seed it early in content, test it first, lean into what's working and then keep using it. Use it in shorts, podcasts, LinkedIn. Test how people respond to your core idea before writing the book and see if it's sticky and then use it. Number three make pre orders an experience, a live masterclass, a summit or inside access, not just a PDF gift. When someone is willing to pre order your book, you know buy it. When it's not out for a month or two, what can you do to make it an event or an experience for that person? Number four Launch in waves. Don't treat your launch day as the finish line. Use events, tours, online summits, corporate tie ins for secondary tertiary spikes. When I launched my first book, More Than Cash Flow, the big launch was June, but then I did a media and book signing tour in the winter. Winter in Canada. Touring around. Not my smartest plan, but hey, I live in Vegas now and I don't freeze like that anymore. Regardless, that tour gave my book a secondary boost and I am sure it contributed to it being in the top 100 print books on Amazon for 2/3 of that year. Number five own as much media as you can. Podcast, newsletter, YouTube, whatever it is. Build your own megaphone so you don't have to rent Reach because if you can control your communication to your audience, you can sell books. It's why we've shifted a lot of our focus to sell my books direct. Sure, you can still buy my books everywhere books are sold, but self publishand succeed.com or self promoteand succeed.com, you'll get the book and in the case of the second edition, you get a ticket to the summit and the audiobook for free. Then we can email you and build a relationship. You'll be invited to our free community where you'll also get discounts, special training special calls. Amazon is never going to give you any data on your buyer, so building your own data is a powerful tool. Number six Feed the engine long after release. Drip in new primers, bonus content, interviews, group reads to refresh attention. Keep talking about your book long after it's out. Yes, some people will hear the same thing a few times, but most will not remember and will be new and have never heard it. So keep going. 7. Write your next book. It's pretty rare someone's big breakout book is their first. Mel has written a lot of books already. This big one was not the first, I promise. Her old books started to sell a lot better after this one came out. Like Brene Brown when she had her first big hit, her our old book started selling a lot better. So keep going. You have more to say and there are people waiting to hear from you. If you take nothing else away, a bestseller is engineered. It takes a lot of time and a lot of communication leading up to and after your book launch. And it might take writing more than one book. Let them didn't just resonate, it was composed to resonate. Borrow what works and try your own spin on things. Because being predictable is not your goal. Being unstoppable is. And I am here cheering for you. Stay in touch like this video and subscribe to the channel so we can keep hanging out and connecting.